Monday, July 2, 2012

On Tuesday, July 3, all District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) will remain closed in the wake of the powerful storms on Friday.

Our teams continue their work to ensure that our schools are ready to receive students, staff, Summer Youth Employee Program participants and community based organizations. We hope to resume normal operations and open schools for all programs on Thursday, July 5. DCPS administrative sites will be open and those employees should report to work as usual.

Free meals will be served to youth under the age of 18 at recreation centers that remain open. For more information on the meals available to youth, visit the Department of Parks and Recreation website at dpr.dc.gov.

Pepco Restores Key Power Infrastructure Following Major Storm All Substations Have Been RestoredExtra Crews Are Arriving to Speed Restoration Work

WASHINGTON, D.C. – On the day after the storm of disastrous proportions hit the mid-Atlantic region, Pepco crews have restored power to major parts of the backbone of the region’s electricity infrastructure. Power to all high-voltage transmission lines and all substations has been restored. As well, all water pumping plants have been restored. Damage assessment teams continue to evaluate the destruction to the system so that the information will be used to guide the restoration effort. Additional damage assessment teams have been brought in from outside the company to assist in this effort. Also on Saturday, tree crews worked to clear fallen trees off of downed power lines so utility crews could rebuild or replace the damaged poles, wires and transformers. More than 60 additional vegetation management crews from the Carolinas will arrive today. Mutual assistance crews are scheduled to arrive Monday from as far away as Oklahoma, Florida, Georgia and Missouri to help with the restoration work. Pepco also is reaching out to utilities in the Northeast and Canada for additional resources. In all, the company has asked for 1,000 line workers from other utilities, however, given the widespread damage across the region, it has been a challenge and it is possible that only a portion of the extra help will be available.

The storm that meteorologists are calling a “derecho” brought winds in excess of 70 miles per hour that uprooted trees and tore off limbs, which brought down numerous power lines and broke crossarms and poles. Line crews, tree crews, call center staff and field support personnel have been deployed around the clock to support efforts to restore service. All Pepco employees have been mobilized for the restoration effort. Despite crews working around the clock to restore service as quickly as possible, it could take a week before essentially all customers are back in service. An ETR (Estimated Time of Restoration) for when essentially all customers will be restored will be available later today. “A restoration effort of this magnitude requires extraordinary effort and support from other utilities,” said Thomas H. Graham, President, Pepco Region. “We really appreciate the assistance from all the crews coming in to help.” Pepco has activated its Crisis Call Center and reached out to other call centers for added support. On Saturday, Pepco made outbound calls to all customers to update them on the restoration status. All outages and downed wires should be reported to 1-877-737-2662, through pepco.com or through the mobile app, available for downloading at pepco.com/mobileapp. Customers should request a call back to verify their power has been restored. Pepco Encourages Safety Precautions After severe storms, Pepcourges customers to take safety precautions. Our safety tips include: · Stay away from downed wires. Call 1-877-737-2662 and follow the prompts to report a downed wire or an outage.· Avoid crews working in the street. This will keep you and the crews safe, and allow them to work on restoring your power.· Visit pepco.com for safety tips and follow the advice of your local emergency management officials. · If you plan to use a portable generator, follow the manufacturer’s instructions and use only when necessary. Don’t overload it and turn it off at night, while you sleep and when you are away from home.· Locate a portable generator in a well-ventilated area. Never run it inside, even in your garage, to avoid the potential hazard of carbon monoxide. Do not connect the generator directly into your home’s main fuse box or circuit panel. · Protect food and refrigerated medicine with regular ice in an insulated cooler. If you are without power for more than two hours, refrigerated foods should be placed in a cooler. Foods will stay frozen for 36 to 48 hours in a fully loaded freezer if the door remains closed, and a half-full freezer will generally keep frozen food for up to 24 hours.· Turn off power to flood-prone basement appliances if it is safe to do so. However, if you have an electrically operated sump pump, you should not turn off the power in your basement.· Tune in to local news broadcasts for the latest weather and emergency information.

· Take cover if necessary

Customers Asked to Report Power OutagesCustomers’ reports are vital to Pepco’s restoration efforts. Customers are asked to report outages at pepco.com or by calling 1-877-737-2662 and following the prompts on the automated system. If reporting an emergency or another life-threatening situation such as downed wires, customers should immediately call 1-877-737-2662 and follow the appropriate prompts. Pepcoalso recommends, when reporting an outage, customers request a call back. Call backs allow usto notify customers when work in their area is completed and they also help locate outages that may be specific to customers’ homes. To keep up-to-date, customers are encouraged to visit the pepco.com website and listen to local radio stations for updates or use the mobile app.

Note:

DPW to Collect Residential Storm Debris between July 1 and July 7
Residents also may bring debris to Ft. Totten Transfer Station.

The DC Department of Public Works announced today how the Department will assist residents who are cleaning up after Friday’s powerful thunderstorm.

1. If hiring a tree specialist or landscaping company to cut up fallen trees and limbs, please have your contractor remove all the debris, limbs and branches.

2. From July 1-July 7 only, the Department of Public Works will remove from the treebox space(s) in front of residents’ homes, branches that are cut into 4' lengths and tied into bundles no more than 2' in diameter. These items can be placed where the residents' trash is collected or they may bring them to the Ft. Totten Transfer Station, 4900 John F. McCormack Road, NE, weekdays (except July 4th, Independence Day) between 1 pm and 5 pm, or Saturday, July 7, between 8 am and 3 pm. Directions to Ft. Totten: Travel east on Irving Street, NW, turn left on Michigan Avenue, turn left on John F. McCormack Road, NE and continue to the end of the street.

3. Please place debris, bagged or loose, in the treebox space, not the gutter or street so the gutters can remain clear and crews can run mechanical sweepers along the curb lanes and gutters. Also, DPW asks residents to resist putting the debris in the street to help prevent flooding in case of rain before the debris is collected. Do not include rocks, stones or concrete.

Residents are reminded that DPW will observe Independence Day, Wednesday, July 4, and sanitation services will be suspended for the holiday. They will resume Thursday, July 5.

• In once-a-week trash and recycling collection neighborhoods collections will “slide” to the next day, so Wednesday’s collections will be made Thursday, Thursday’s collections will be made Friday and so on.

• In twice-a-week collection neighborhoods, normal collections will be made Monday and Tuesday; however, Thursday’s collections will be made Friday and Friday’s collections will be made Saturday.

• Street sweeping will be suspended Wednesday, July 4 so motorists will not need to move their cars that day.

UPDATE: D.C. Government Open Tomorrow; DCPS Closed; School Bus Service Suspended; Some Cooling Centers Open Overnight

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – The District of Columbia government will be open tomorrow, but D.C. Public Schools will remain closed as the District continues to respond to power outages that resulted from Friday night’s severe weather as well as the extreme heat that has followed.

Residents are encouraged to get the latest information on emergency response from www.hsema.dc.gov, www.dc.gov, and their Twitter and DC311 app accounts.

Some of the Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) facilities open as cooling centers will remain open overnight for residents who do not have power, DPR officials announced.

District officials encouraged workers to prepare for potential commuting delays tomorrow due to lingering problems from storm debris and downed power lines.

Below is a round-up of the latest information from across the D.C. government in response to the storm:

D.C. GOVERNMENT OPEN; PUBLIC SCHOOLS CLOSED; OSSE SCHOOL BUS SERVICE SUSPENDED

The District government will be open tomorrow, with the exception of D.C. Public Schools (DCPS). Students and staff assigned to summer school should not report. Moreover, DCPS schools will not be open for use by other community-based organizations (CBOs) or programs, including Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) participants, on July 2nd. DCPS administrative sites will remain open, and those employees should report work as usual. In addition, essential personnel should report to school as they normally do. Other school-based staff members (non-essential employees) are not required to report to school.

The Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) announced that all OSSE school bus service is suspended tomorrow – including transportation of children enrolled in non-public placements and in other jurisdictions.

SOME COOLING CENTERS OPEN OVERNIGHT

Three of the six DPR facilities that have opened as cooling centers will remain open until 7 a.m. tomorrow morning for residents who still do not have power:

The District Department of Transportation is working to mitigate any negative effects of traffic-signal outages, storm debris or downed power lines on traffic before Monday morning’s rush hour. DDOT reports:

·Traffic signals on evacuation routes are powered.

·DDOT is working with PEPCO to ensure major roads are open by tomorrow morning's rush-hour period.

·Traffic-control personnel and stop signs have been deployed to intersections where signals are out.

Tips:

·Treat dark intersections as four-way stops.

·Stay away from downed wires. They could be energized and electrical contact could be fatal.

·Stay clear of broken and hanging tree branches, as they can fall at any time.

District residents are reminded to call 311 or go online at 311.dc.gov to report downed trees and branches in public space and to be prepared to provide specific details about the location. The service requests are immediately forwarded to DDOT’s Urban Forestry Administration (UFA). Priority is given to street trees that have fallen on homes, cars and power lines, and trees that are blocking roadways; then UFA will shift its focus to storm clean up in alleys and other tree related storm debris.

To report a power outage please call Pepco at 877-PEPCO62. Customers may report outages online at pepco.com or download Pepco’s smart phone app, pepco.com/mobileapp, to report and track their outages.

District residents are reminded that trees and branches that fall on or from private property are the responsibility of the property owners.

GAS-POWERED GENERATOR SAFETY

Since there will be a number of District residents who may be without electricity for several days and may be using gas- powered generators, hospitals and providers should be aware of carbon-dioxide exposure risk during storm recovery due to improper use of generators and should screen patients as such with concerning symptoms for CO poisoning.

Families who use generators should know that:

·Generators must be placed outside away from windows and ventilation intakes.

·A generator should never be run inside a building or garage.

·People should not attempt to pour fuel into a generator while it is running.

·People should not store containers of fuel near working generators.

·Cars should never be left running in a garage.

·Symptoms of carbon-dioxide exposure may include; headache, dizziness, nausea- vomiting, fatigue of symptoms of flu –like illness without a fever.

(WASHINGTON, DC) – The DC Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) continues to work with HSEMA, DGS, Pepco and Fire & EMS to address power outages at various recreation centers across the District. Due to these outages the following DPR Summer Camps and facilities will remain closed today, Monday, July 2, 2012: